RE: 'Branding' Myself and My Writing
Read my unredacted thoughts and feelings about ‘branding’ myself and my writing, then leave a comment to join this dialogue. And don’t forget to check out today’s writing prompt.
I have written about ‘becoming a brand’ and ‘finding my brand’ and ‘branding’ creative works in the past. In fact, it’s one of the rare non-political topics that get me riled up nowadays, in the dawning days of AI. And I wish I didn’t have to keep writing about it, seeing as how I no longer work in marketing and abhor the entire concept of ‘branding’ human beings, including myself, and their creative impulses and creations.
Nevertheless, millions of people from every background I can think of won’t stop talking about ‘branding’ themselves and their creative work, especially online influencers, as if they strive to be happy, medicated cows in line for the slaughter instead of authentic, complex, evolving, sentient human beings. So, here I am, writing about it again.
Of course, I will do my utmost to reach those who want to read and engage with my writing via effective tools, techniques, and platforms I have access to, like Substack. But I refuse to brand myself, the person, or her creative impulses themselves. Does that make sense? Why do I think any of this is worth writing about anyway? And what do I really mean?
Well…
I refuse to brand myself and my writing because I am not a product and cannot reduce who I am and what I write to a single consumable, digestible soundbite. Trust me. I’ve tried. And an identity crisis was all I received. Maybe you’ve experienced this too?
I refuse to brand myself and my writing because I’m unsure what type of packaging I’d use, and I especially despise plastic. Besides, no shelf in the world would be able to contain my multitudes. Would they be able to contain yours? Please, tell me the truth?
I refuse to brand myself and my writing because my writing is a window to my soul, but only offers single snapshots of it at a time. Snapshots that are still developing, still becoming, still being edited and revised. I mean, our writing identities should be ever-evolving, along with us and our lives, right?
I refuse to brand myself and my writing because they both have variable yet priceless pricing, which adjusts per unique reader, like you. Pricing that’s weighed on their attentions’ demands’ fall and rise, and yours, not mine. I wish this was easier to ‘know’, to understand and define, but all the stagnant bullet points and data points about you and I and where we meet or don’t are truly uncapturable in spreadsheets and slides.
I refuse to brand myself and my writing because they’re not commodities to trade, and their worth won’t fade when they’re not popular or widely read or trending on a graph. Their existence, once created and experienced in the world, goes on for eternity. And what kind of evergreen commercial could capture the essence of that?
I refuse to brand myself and my writing because they’re living entities that breathe, even if only metaphorically. Entities that inspire and aspire to be free from the chains and tags of fickle markets and others’ piggy-backing greed. In all seriousness, why do they get more royalties, more shares, than they need? What about you and me? Don’t we creative mortals need to eat?
I refuse to brand myself and my writing because they consist of others’ blood, sweat, laughter, tears, and all the rest of the joys and sorrows too. So, it feels plain wrong to put those emotions up for auction without their consent, once held and semi-used. Even if only for a fraction of a beat. Because how does one, should one, like you and me, effectively capture that in a blurb on a blue-lit, ever-scrolling screen?
I refuse to brand myself and my writing because I understand their ephemeral, intangible value. And I am unable to easily reduce them to clickbait clickable ads that will be discarded as nothing more than digital waste. For whose purpose? Whose dreams? We must ask.
But most of all, I refuse to brand myself and my writing because the world contains too much worth experiencing and writing about to pick only one thing to focus on repeatedly, repetitiously, ad nauseum, forever, or ever. Unless I strive to be some kind of bot, which I do not. Or unless there’s a ‘brand’ for indefatigable audiences outside rage baiting and inducing algorithms, which I highly doubt.
Yet I understand, despite everything I just wrote, how paper thin my refusal is, and that this post will probably be perceived as nothing more than out-of-touch ramblings by most, which will fall on deaf times, to be swallowed up by the online void… of wherever unpopular, critical refusals and ramblings go because I am, in truth, not delusional.
Under duress, I know, somehow, whether I like it or not, we’ve reached the beginning of the second quarter of the twenty-first century. An age where personas are for sale, in more ways than one, despite my limp refusals and ramblings. And that I really don’t have a choice in the matter. Unless…
TBD?
Nevertheless, please note that I did, at least once, in utmost earnest, try my very best to protest and resist the vapidity of it all, the incompleteness of it all, the soulless crush of being forced to reduce and commodify it all, including myself and everything I write. Hey… can that be a ‘brand’? Pretty please?
Ugh! Get me out of here, before I really say something I’ll re —
What are your thoughts on ‘branding’? Leave a comment to join this dialogue, then share this post with others so they can join too.
© This work is not available for artificial intelligence (AI) training. All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC.
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Today’s Writing Prompt
Writing Prompt: The Brand
Write about a brand you like or don’t like, and why. Or write a piece of flash fiction about a brand, either real or imagined.
Writing Tip:
Consider some brands you follow or avoid on social media and why.
